February 5, 2004

To: City-County Planning Commission of Warren County, Kentucky.

Re: 2004-1-DP: Cosma 1, LLC and MI Developments, Inc., Detailed Development Plan

As Kentucky registered professional geologists, as university professors of geology, and as concerned citizens who reside in Warren County, we are actively involved with the future development of our community and the continued good health of our environment. Having followed the convoluted evolution of the proposed Kentucky (Trimodal) Transpark since 1998, we are absolutely convinced that the narrow, made-to-order environmental, geological, hydrological, and engineering studies conducted to date are insufficient as a basis for sound planning decisions from this body.

We believe it essential that a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) should be conducted in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and we strongly urge you not to approve the Cosma/Magna detailed development plan until the EIS has been completed. The NEPA process ensures that all potential environmental consequences are fully evaluated before any development activity begins. We further believe the Cosma/Magna development represents an improper, ad hoc segmentation from the overall Transpark project. Under NEPA, a full EIS is required for projects that are funded, even in part, by the federal government and such funds have been appropriated for developing the proposed Transpark.

Beyond our insistence on an EIS, we are concerned that the Planning Commission is permitting development activity on the Cosma/Magna site while its re-zoning decision to heavy industry remains under legal appeal. We also find the Commission is ignoring the February 2003 revisions to the Warren County-Bowling Green Comprehensive Plan. As examples, no background monitoring studies of water quality or air quality have yet been undertaken. Moreover, we personally observed and recorded major modification and 'repair' of an active sinkhole on the subject property as well as open burning. As the proposed development site has been annexed into the city, were the proper permits in place for these activities?

In conclusion, we believe this body is failing in its duty to fulfill its own mission statement one that promises to "provide an information framework which enables the community and its representatives to make optimum choices about the future"...a future in which every one of us is a stakeholder. Your obligations to the public can only be met when you insist that all applicable local, state, and federal requirements have been met before you approve any detailed development plans on the proposed Transpark site.

Michael T. May, Ph.D.
KY P.G. by exam #2342
501 Nutwood St.
Bowling Green, KY 42103
Kenneth W. Kuehn, Ph.D.
KY P.G. by exam #2341
1714 Bent Tree Ave.
Bowling Green, KY 42103

To the Editor:

What is wrong with our government?
Our local, state, and federal government?
What is wrong with our media?
Our local, state, and national media?

I am speaking about the shame that is the Kentucky TriModal Transpark situation, located just east of Bowling Green, KY.

With blatant disregard for local ordinances and ongoing legal challenges, contractors are moving forward with Magna car parts plant site preparation and road building. This is illegal!

Sinkholes are opening up and new Dishman Lane-type cave collapses are being filled in behind "No Trespassing" signs. No one knows how much sediment and contamination are daily devastating the caves and water quality of the underground rivers that run beneath the site. A landfill built in a sinkhole over a river is allowed to contaminate groundwater, without review, monitoring, or comment. The Magna site is in the middle of a legal zoning challenge. All of this is illegal!

There are ordinances and laws on the books, created for public and environmental protection - being broken daily! Why are the Transpark land-grabbers allowed to break these ordinances and planning rules, with no comment, no review, and no mention in the media?

With blatant disregard for state and federal law, illegally-segmented and sub-segmented Federally-funded roadways are being prepared for Magna and the Transpark: the legally-required public participation process and historic review process have been cancelled!

Is there an honest public servant left standing? Where are the investigations? The media outrage?

The KY TriModal Transpark would devastate 4000-6000 acres of family farms and thriving American villages, replacing it with heavy industry and an airport that has been shown to be economically and environmentally unsound. The local citizens are being terrorized into submission: The ITA's original Dan Cherry promised that a historic plaque would be raised next to the Transpark's airport runway to commemorate the African American community that would be displaced!

With Federal money in the mix of support, an Environmental Impact Statement is required to guarantee that nearby Mammoth Cave National Park's air, water, biota, and recreational experience will not be harmed by the impacts of this mega-industrial development - and I-66 is lurking in the wings.

Where is the EIS?
Where is the legally-required federal review of this illegal situation?

From top to toe, this project is in violation of our communities' and nation's laws.
Why have our law enforcers vanished?
Why has our moral resolve withered?
This is all illegal!

Sincerely,

Dr. Hilary Lambert
720B Aurora Avenue
Lexington KY 40502
(859) 255-8216